In the meantime, here is my second poem. In the fall I was enrolled in a poetry class where I wound up writing a couple poems about my dad, This is one of the more finished ones. Working on a couple actually for possible submissions. Hope you enjoy.
The
Man in the Picture
I don’t remember the man
in the picture, the one I stand
like, with a hand on my hip, one
knee slightly bent,
The one I repeated every swear
word to in English or Spanish
to either forget or not say
anymore – I guess it worked
The one who brought me surprises
after trips away – they mixed in
with
gifts of “just because” or “I love
you”,
so now I don’t know which was which
The one who bought me a ticket
to the history show at the IMAX
theatre –
he looked in the Texas heat for the car
he didn’t want Mom to know he lost
in the paid parking lot in San
Antonio
The one who when I went to Spain
gave
me a calling card for emergencies –
He went speechless when the phone
bill was more than $500 because he
“just wanted to hear [my] voice”
The one who I saw his face age almost
twice
its years – cancer treatments and a
brain
tumor wiped out recollections of
feeding
the cats, turning on the lights in
the back
and coming home.
He still gives me money every week
“to get a hamburger”, and gets mad
I walk the half a block from work
because it’s too hot outside
More and more I know only the man
who stands in front of me, and more
and more I forget the man in the
picture.
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